St. James United Methodist Church

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111 West Lake Drive
Added to the Stormwater Gallery October 2011
Blue Feature: permeable parking lot
St. James is located at the intersection of West Lake Drive and Lumpkin Street. When the church needed to add additional parking for their growing congregation they chose to do something a little different. Instead of commonplace asphalt or concrete their parking lot was built as a permeable parking lot. This means that when it rains much of the water will actually soak INTO and THROUGH the parking lot instead of flowing off.

Why is this important? As water runs across a parking lot if often picks up oil, antifreeze, litter, and other pollution that has dripped from cars or been left on the surface. The pollution is then directed through storm drains into a nearby stream. Usually when a parking lot is created it takes rain that used to soak into the ground, collects it and sends it to a nearby stream. This new load of water overwhelms the stream, causing flooding and erosion.

St. James was able to add over an acre of parking without impairing Brooklyn Creek just down stream. Permeable pavement is just one way to help a stream, with innovative thinking like this we can all do something!